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With a reasonable mission plan, a manned mission to Mars could be NASA's next goal after the ISS without any increase in NASA's budget. That is, if Congress decided to actually do it.
*I've grown cynical enough to think the only thing those old farts "on the hill" are interested in DOING are their interns.
???
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Kalizarin, I personally haven't heard him say anything about supporting a manned Mars Mission. I read at http://mars.caltech.edu dated 5 Mar 2000, that a person was at a campaign stop where then Gov. Bush was asked his thoughts on Mars exploration and he said "Maybe". Now this could've been a campaign promise, but he has done a lot of his campaign promises so far!
I agree with AltoWar on his comments for privatization of the space program and Strong, Specific political demand for a small and cheap mission to mars. It would be nice if NASA was given funding and direct support of the President and Congress. I also feel that private industries should be supported as well.
One day...we will get to Mars and the rest of the galaxy!! Hopefully it will be by Nuclear power!!!
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I wanted to clarify my last comment. He was asked what his thoughts were on humans to Mars and that's when he said "Maybe!"
One day...we will get to Mars and the rest of the galaxy!! Hopefully it will be by Nuclear power!!!
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It takes less thrust to leave earths gravity well and get on your way to mars then it does to get to the moon. You can send more and it will be cheaper.
Huh?
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Perhaps what was meant was that it takes less delta-vee to get to the Martian surface than the lunar surface. This is true because you have to fire rockets to land on the moon--delta vee 2.3 km/sec, if I remember right--but the Martian atmosphere does most of your delta-vee for free if you have a heat shield.
-- RobS
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*I've grown cynical enough to think the only thing those old farts "on the hill" are interested in DOING are their interns.
LOL! Ain'ts thats the truth! There's two things I really despise about the space program in its current implementation: it's dependence on short sighted politicians to approve everything it does, and second, these stupid cost-plus schemes that totally steer the program away from cost effectiveness and ultimately gets everything killed because the price tags are too high. Of course we'll have to live with point one forever, but somebody needs to chuck the cost-plus scheme. The contractors will cry foul and say they're a special case that should keep recieving outrageous amounts of money for work done because of XYZ factors, but such a system has to go because it's simply abused by the contractors and gives them little incentive to keep costs low.
To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd
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It takes less thrust to leave earths gravity well and get on your way to mars then it does to get to the moon. You can send more and it will be cheaper.
Huh?
Correction
more exactly:
It takes less rocket juice to get to mars then it takes to get to the moon, as long as you allow for aerobreaking.
I have the numbers here somewhere if you like.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. -Henry David Thoreau
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I don't think that 'cost-plus' is a bad way of doing business. It's far superior to a fixed price contract for any project requiing significant research and development. The reason why is because there are too many unknowns when there is a lot of R&D to be done. The contractor and the government cannot accurately estimate a fixed price when there is so much uncertainty, and such a contract leads to the contractors getting screwed (look at the cancellation of the A-12 Advanced Tactical Aircraft and the reprocussions for G.D. and McDD.)
"I'm not much of a 'hands-on' evil scientist."--Dr. Evil, "Goldmember"
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